Tag: language

Oliver was the most popular name for male newborns in the UK last year. And Olivia was the most popular female name. In London, it was Amelia and Mohammed and in Ireland it was Jack and Emily.

So what about Sweden in 2018? Just-released information from Sweden’s office of statistics give us the following answer.

The most popular top 5 names for male newborns were:

William

Liam

Noah

Lucas

Oliver

In fact, there are 44010 males in Sweden with the name William. And 58 females!

And for newborn girls it was:

Alice

Maja

Lilly

Ella

Wilma

Interestingly, there are 38957 females called Alice in Sweden. And 22 men!

The names Ture, Lias and Amir are the fastest climbing names in the list of boys’ names. And for girls, Hailey och Bianca. The names Sebastian, Neo, Simon, Emelie, Ellinor, Idun and Noomi have left the top 20 list.

Currently in the depths of winter, the Swedish landscape is covered in snow and ice.

I previously published a blog about 50 Swedish words for snow. So I became curious about how many words are there to describe ice.

I was surprised to find an enormous number of words. I guess it’s not so surprising for a Nordic country with so many lakes, rivers and waterways that there are many words to describe the different stages and shapes of frozen water.

Here are 15 of the words I found: 15 words for ice.

Is – the standard word for ice

Blankis – ice that shines like a mirror

Nyis – ice that’s only a couple of centimeters thick and transparent

Fast is – thick ice, often not transparent

Issörja – when the air is cold but the water is moving, a kind of ice slop forms

Tallrikis – plates of ice that form when above mentioned ice slop clusters together

Pannkaksis- similar to tallriksis but formed when water with different amount of salt content meet each other

Svallis – the kind of yellowish ice that freezes on mountainsides or rocky walls

Drivis – large pieces of ice that float on the water and are driven by wind

Isflak – a large, loose sheet of ice floating on water

Rutten is – literally ‘rotten ice’, the first stage of thawing ice

Skruvis – when thin ice layers itself on top of each other, like filo pastry.

Yesterday I wrote about the word quisling, meaning traitor, which is used in English but is actually borrowed from Norwegian. This made me curious about what English words are borrowed from the Swedish language.

After a little research, here are the top 10 (in alphabetical order):

1. Angstrom, the measurement, after the Swedish scientistAnders Jonas Ångström

2. Celcius – the international measure of temperatures – is named after Swedish scientist Anders Celcius.

3. Gauntlet (as in ‘run the gauntlet’) – from the Swedish word gatlopp

Sweden might have a government soon. Months after the general election, an unconventional middle coalition seems to be forming, which includes former opposition parties from left and right. All of this is an attempt to keep an extreme right wing party out of the government. However, it’s not without its critics.

One party in particular – the right-oriented Center Party- have been strongly criticized for being turncoats and traitors. One disgruntled politician called the leader of the Center party a quisling. While we use this term in English, I was curious to check into where the word comes from and why it is such a serious insult.

According to Wiki, quisling is a term originating inNorway, which is used inall the Scandinavian languages and in English for a person who collaborates with an enemy occupying force – or more generally as a synonym fortraitor. The word originates from the surname of the Norwegian war-time leaderVidkun Quisling who headed a domesticNazi regime during the Second World War.

Interestingly, the use of the word quisling predates the war though. In 1933, the term was used to describe the followers of Quisling who was in the process of starting a national fascist party based on the German nazi model.

In 1940, Quisling attempted to seize power in Norway, as he wanted to collaborate with Hitler. His coup d’etat failed, and he and his followers were declared criminals. In the British Times the headline was ‘Quislings everywhere’, and the term became synonymous with traitor – a word to ‘carry the scorn of mankind throughout the centuries’, to quote Winston Churchill.

So there we have it. A word taken from a pitiful, slithering fascist who was a traitor to his country and collaborated with an enemy power. Sounds more like a description of Trump if you ask me.

It seems then definitely out of proportion that the word is currently being used to describe the leader of Sweden’s Center party.

Of course many people are disappointed, and she has had to make some difficult compromises. But there is one promise she has not backed down on, however difficult it might be – to never give fascists a position of power in Swedish politics. And though not ideal for her, she has moved to the middle to prevent this.

The irony then is in the fact that she is being called a quisling. She is not a quisling, she is in fact the complete opposite.

The Swedish word for Sweden is Sverige. Have you ever wondered why then Sweden is called Sweden in English?

Well, like all etymology of words, the explanation can be found centuries back and in a different country. In fact, the English name was loaned from the Dutch language in the 17th century. It is based onMiddle Dutch Zweden, the Dutch name of Sweden. In turn, the name Zweden is the dative plural ofZwede (Swede). Country names based on a dative plural and adding -n were the norm in German and Dutch in the 15th century – other examples are the GermanItalien“Italy” and Spanien“Spain”. These are also actually the words in Swedish for those countries.

What about before the 17th century when England borrowed the name Sweden from the Dutch? Well, clearly Sweden existed, and indeed it was called something else – Swedeland. And in early Old English, the country was known as Sweoland or Sweorice. Sweorice translates as the realm of the Sveonas – who were a Germanic tribe of the Sviar (a Norse tribe).

It’s not clear why the English suddenly changed to the Dutch version, but it may have been due to siding in conflicts or to make trading and communication easier.

So yesterday’s Swedeland is today’s Sweden. Personally, I think Sweorice has a nice ring to it, and is seems closer to the Swedish word Sverige.

Today is Svea’s Name’s Day. And October 8th is my Name’s Day. Well, not quite….but almost. It is Nils. And since I’m called Neil, well, I take Nils as my day.

Some of you might be wondering what the hell I’m talking about. What is a ‘Name’s Day’? Well, it’s like this. In Sweden, every day has a name, sometimes two. And if your name happens to be represented in this way in the calender, then you can celebrate your day. Strange? Maybe. Unusual? Not really.

A Name’s Day is actually a tradition in lots of countries such as Bulgaria, Croatia and Ukraine. According to Wiki, the custom originated with the Christian calendar of saints: believers named after a saint would celebrate that saint’s feast day. In Sweden, however, there is no longer any explicit connection to Christianity. It’s been a tradition since the Middle Ages and started because the church wanted the people to celebrate Name’s Days instead of birthdays which they viewed as a pagan tradition.

There are different lists though some names are celebrated on the same day in many countries. In 1901 a comprehensive modernization was made in Sweden to make the list up to date with current names. This also happened in Finland, but not in other countries.

But Name’s Days are not without their controversy. The monopoly on calenders, held by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, expired in 1972 and so did the official name day list. And then all hell broke loose. Competing lists emerged and finally in 1986 a new list with three names on each day was designed to create harmony in the Name’s Day chaos. But people weren’t happy. Seven years later, this list was revised and reduced to two names per day. But Swedes were still dissatisfied with this and the Swedish Academy produced a new two-name list which was finally accepted and brought into use in 2001. Although it does not have the official status of older lists, it is now universally used in Sweden.

One alternative calender, however, is the Diversity Calender which appoints each day with a more diverse selection of names to represent modern-day society.

How this tradition arrived in Sweden is unclear. Maybe it was imported by foreign religious leaders or merchants, or maybe it’s to do with the fact that the Swedish Protestant Church retains some traditions similar to the Catholic. Whatever the origin, it’s a reason to celebrate. And Swedes love to celebrate!

So, come on Svea, today’s your day – January 2nd! Happy Name’s Day to you!!

I know, i know. It sounds gross doesn’t it? ‘Sweden’s politicians are slut spurting.’ However disgusting it might sound, it is exactly what they are doing.

With one week to go to the election, all the parties are in the final throws of their campaigning. In this final week, they try to get their message across by turning the gear up a bit. This final sprint to the finishing line is called a ‘slutspurt’ in Swedish. It’s often used to describe the final hurried days of a sale.

And it’s what they’re all doing.

They’re slut spurting on the tv, in the streets, in the media. It’ll be a relief when it’s all over I expect. That much spurting can’t be good for you.